364 Days a Year – Review

364 Days a Year is one of my favorite kinds of books to read. It offered a unique storyline, well-done characters, and was a young-adult novel I would feel excited to have my daughter read someday. The blurb caught my attention and thankfully, the story did not disappoint in the least. I was truly swept away by this novel.

The idea of soul-jumping in this story was something I could not wait to learn more about. I was impressed by the author’s ability to put me into the shoes of not only one character, but a variety, through the narrator’s telling of a few of her past 108 lives. This story could have easily gone down many tangents and taken readers away from the initial point the author set to tell, but impressively the plot did not deviate in the slightest. Everything written was important to moving the story forward and kept my interest throughout.

I know the TwilightSaga is not necessarily cool these days, making me leery of even saying this, but I truly mean it in the best possible way: 364 Days a Year gave me serious Twilight vibes! Sarah Riad’s portrayal of the high school experience somehow took me straight back to Forks, circa 2008. When I’m able to read of a character so experienced in life struggling through high school, I simply cannot get enough. Nothing is more exciting than imagining the unfortunate situation of being forced back to high school, despite having lived life 108 times. Sarah Riad did a phenomenal job of conveying the difficulty of high school in our social media generation through an aged character in a youthful body.

My only small qualms had to do with the language in the story. I felt some of the reflections of the past would have featured slightly different language for the time period. I also had an issue with the frequency of the word “whilst” within the story. Though the story was set in London and the word fits British grammar, it was overused in my opinion and could have been edited out at times. As an American, however, I’m probably more prone to noticing the word because it’s not one used in my daily vocabulary.

Overall, this story was an exciting and completely captivating read. Though I predicted the ending, I was never entirely sure of what would happen — I liked the possibility of many probable endings. This was a strong 4-star read for me and an author I would be happy to read more books from in the future. I can’t wait to see what unique story she will come up with next!